Background:
Throughout World War II, the Nazi paranormal corps constantly tried to tip the scales in the Axis's favor through the acquisition of ancient occult artifacts and experiments involving the blackest sorcery. After the paranormal corps' first major success, obtaining the Spear of Destiny for Hitler, the Allies realized just how pivotal thwarting them would be to the war effort, and allocated significant resources to do so. These efforts paid off, and throughout the rest of the war, the Nazi paranormal corps' actives, including an attempt to wield the Wand of Mundas and a large scale search for the ark of the covenant, were constantly curtailed by Allied agents.

One of their last gasps took place in December 1944, when the paranormal corps were charged by Hitler to invoke direct demonic assistance to win the war. A very young child of Satan, Anung Un Rama, was wrenched from his infernal home, but before the Nazi's could do anything more, they were attacked by American forces, who discovered Anung Un Rama and took him back to America where Professor Bruttenholm and a group of other paranormal experts founded the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense. They were given custody of Anung Un Rama, who they code named "Hellboy", to study and raise, and in time Hellboy joined them as an agent of the BPRD.  He did so willingly, but what choice did he have in reality?

In his own "best interest," Hellboy was never allowed outside of the compound by himself, and remained unknown to the populace at large. The locks on the doors at the BPRD were starting to chafe the young and curious Hellboy, however. Shortly after puberty, he started a long series of "escapes," during which he caused widespread panic and a resurgence of "Jersey Devil" sightings.

There is still almost nothing known about Hellboy's origins, or the origin or composition of his stony right hand.  In the employ of the BPRD, he has helped discourage fairy mischief, hunted vampires and werewolves, fought with at least 4 multi-tentacled monstrosities, and foiled the plots of long dead sorcerers.  Hellboy has now grown up to be a full-fledged demon in the form of a man, complete with fierce red skin, a tail, a giant armored glove, and two very large horns.  From time to time, he also sports a crown of fire, but usually only when he is wholly and truly angry...for instance one of his friends or an innocent is injured.

Recently, while on a BPRD field mission, Hellboy pursued a supernatural nasty through a portal from the Jersey tunnel, and found himself in a strange subway with the nasty still staring him down. After turing the nasty into a slimy goo, Hellboy found a copy of the Daily Planet and determined himself to be in Metropolis. After a minor spat with The Amazing Ghost Fighter, who took a right cross to the chin for trying to "grab the bull by the horns," Hellboy helped the JLA deal with the case of a mad bomber dropping buildings all around town, although his skills as a paranormal researcher were terribly unsuited for this type of investigation. Still, Hellboy bonded with the members of the JLA and is now currently exploring the opportunity of joining them and taking his place in the daylight along with the other strange and wonderful personalities who help protect the world from evil.
 

Personality/Motivation:
All things considered, Hellboy is a pretty down-to-earth kind of guy. He likes to watch TV, drink beer, eat spicy foods, and smoke the occasional cigar.  He also likes his job, as it lets him investigate the strange and unusual, and serves as an outlet for his curiosity about the world around him (and sometimes aggressive tendencies).  He seems to genuinely like looking into the world of the supernatural. Interestingly, although Hellboy deals with the supernatural on a day-to-day basis, he has no interest in who he is. Instead he tires to ignore his origins.

Hellboy mentions that one of his faults, the one that has gotten him in the most trouble of the years, is his temper. He shows a tendency to get angry in certain situations, leading to him doing fairly reckless (and stupid) things -- such as charging into a pitch black room or staying to fight something he can't stop easily. His temper also shows in how he reacts to his friends and allies getting injured. Such an event will often lead him to charge the guilty party with the intent of fully
stomping it into the ground. Of course, in several cases, this leads to Hellboy biting off a touch more than he can chew...

Although he fights the supernatural regularly, Hellboy doesn't go around killing monsters wantonly. In many cases he will ignore, or at least leave alone, a supernatural being, at least until the being's intentions are clear. He is, after all, a supernatural being himself. However, Hellboy has no patience for murderous and/or evil beings of supernatural origins, and a sure-fire way to tick him off is for a ghost, vampire, werewolf, witch, or what-have-you start killing or risking the lives of innocent people -- especially children.
 

Powers/Tactics:
First of all, Hellboy's infernal origins mean he is much stronger and far, far tougher than any normal human. Secondly, Hellboy has shown remarkable recuperative powers.  He bounces back quickly from all sorts of abuse, and has even gone so far as to ignore a knife in his back and to charge a German MG-42 machine-gun and come out relatively unscathed. Hellboy is invulnerable to fire, which apparently means all forms of energy, including electricity. He uses this ability to good effect when he blows monsters up with explosives at point blank range.  A Nazi scientist, Herman von Klempt, mentioned he had Hellboy hooked up to a generator capable of generating enough "...volts... to light up Hamburg," and he doubted that was sufficient to kill him.

In addition to being fairly hard to hurt, Hellboy also bears what is called "The Right Hand of Doom."  The hand (and forearm) is made from what looks to be solid stone and is effectively invulnerable.  It cannot be scratched, nicked, marked, or damaged in anyway. It also doesn't feel any pain.  According to legend, this hand created the "dragon" Ogdru Jahad, imprisoned it (actually, "them" as Ogdru Jahad is seven related beings) and can release and control them.  Apparently, it was grafted onto Hellboy's arm soon after he was born by parties unknown. Naturally, Hellboy has no intention of using the hand to do any of these things, but that doesn't stop others from trying to force him to work for them.  It may be possible to cut the hand from Hellboy's arm and use it by itself.  However, Hellboy must be alive when this happens, cutting it from his dead body will result in a "poisoned" limb.

[Jake Harrison]